Reflection Paper

Well, I didn't quite make the average 8-16 pages as suggested to us, but here is my hopefully clear and succint reflection paper on my trip to the Middle East. You will notice in it several familiar themes from my blog. I invite your interaction with my thoughts whether they be positive or negative critiques. I will engage your responses (if there are any) in the comments section. May these reflections and the discussion following them be a means of grace to spur us on to be more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
Peace and grace,
Tom
P.S. For some reason I can't get some of the spacing to work properly below. Please excuse the odd layout at times.

METS 07
Tom Arthur
Duke Divinity School

The high point was the low point…

The wakeup call came at 1:30 AM to begin what would be an early morning trek up Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise from the summit. This portion of the Middle East Travel Seminar had been talked about and anticipated by many because of the spiritual significance of the mountain and the liveliness of the physical adventure. The trek was to include a camel ride two-thirds of the way up and about 800 steps to ascend the last third; all in the dark.

The actual experience of riding a camel is one I hope never to relive again in my life. Imagine doing the splits for an hour while bouncing up and down. My guide would not let me cross my legs around the front peg of the saddle, and so I was required to ride up Mount Sinai straddling the wide girth of this animal. When I finally dismounted this beast and began to use my own two legs, I was met with a constant stream of pilgrims coming down the stairs. Upon arrival at the summit, our group joined at least a hundred other people waiting for the sunrise.

In my real life I spend significant amounts of time and energy backpacking and climbing up mountain summits all in an effort to get away from the crowds. And here we were on a summit in Egypt, that no one was really sure was Moses’ Mount Sinai, surrounded by huge crowds. I was beginning to feel like I was on a spiritual pilgrimage to Disney Land. My motivation which had been deteriorating in the face of a constantly demanding travel schedule was now almost non-existent. It was day eleven; just over halfway through the trip, and I was tanking.

And the people were the high point…

Damascus, Syria. The two names together raise a host of mixed connotations for Americans. “Damascus” is a holy city, one that is featured prominently in Paul’s conversion story. The name of the city draws out a certain amount of respect and awe. “Syria” on the other hand evokes images of terrorism and human rights abuses. Before the trip whenever I mentioned that our group would be traveling to Syria, I would receive wide eyes and many questions about the wisdom of traveling to Syria enjoined with pleas to be careful.

On the flight into Damascus my image of Syria was complicated even further. I sat next to a husband and wife who were Syrian Presbyterian Christians. I came to find out that they attended a church with three hundred families! So much for my impression that Syria (and the Middle East) is made up only of Muslims. The people of Syria were beginning to become three-dimensional people rather than the flat two-dimensional images we Americans see in our media’s representation of them.

The next evening after a full day of sight-seeing, we had a further chance to experience the complexities of Syrians. A brother and sister came to speak with our group. They were Syrian Christians. The beginning of the discussion was more like a monologue, but eventually the sister invited us to ask frank questions about American impressions of Syria. This began a rather spirited discussion about Syria and America. Throughout this conversation I began to wonder whether this family ever experienced any tension between their faith and their culture or political situation. The answer I received was startling: “Absolutely no tension.” I am not certain I was getting a real answer, but during their response, I thought I heard this family say that they were Arabs first and Christians second. I think that most Christians in America would ideally like to think of themselves as Christians first and Americans second (though one lay person told me that he was Christian first and American second, except in war!). I asked further about this and found that I had indeed understood correctly. They thought of themselves as Arabs first and Christians second. They seemed as equally perplexed by my own assertion that I desired to be Christian first and American second.

This was not the first time I had heard an Arab speak like this. Bishop Elias Chacour came to Duke Divinity School a couple of months before I left for METS and made the same assertion: he was an Arab Palestinian first (who was also an Israeli citizen) and then a Christian. He spoke in temporal terms. His physical birth came before his spiritual birth. But the temporal nature of his Arab-ness coming first had ramifications for his spiritual birth. These manifested themselves in an intense complexity of loyalties to Palestine and Israel and peace.

The family we spoke with did not have the nuanced theological language that Bishop Chacour spoke with, but they did have a similar understanding of the temporal nature of Christianity in relation to Arab culture. They reminded us that the Arab civilization and culture in all its diverse expressions existed long before Jesus ever walked the earth. In contrast, America came to exist long after Jesus, and many who settled on these lands from Europe came already as Christians. This way of thinking makes me wonder whether Native Americans might understand their Christianity in the same temporal way as a Native Christian rather than as Christian Native.

This question of being an American Christian or a Christian American dogged me for the rest of the trip. I have come to a number of reflections upon this question. First, there is no such thing as a Christian or a Christianity that exists outside of culture. A relationship with Christ always must be one within a specific culture. In this way, the culture precedes Christianity. And yet the culture is not entirely equivalent with Christianity. Jesus is a real person and a relationship with Jesus is a real relationship. One engages Jesus from a particular culture, but it is Jesus who critiques the culture, not the other way around. But while the culture does not critique the relationship with Jesus, there is no way to engage the relationship with Jesus except through culture.

This reminds me of the tension expressed in the United Methodist Book of Disciple (BOD) between the relationship of Scripture to tradition, reason, and experience. The BOD says, “While we acknowledge the primacy of Scripture in theological reflection, our attempts to grasp its meaning always involve tradition, experience, and reason” (¶104, pg. 79). It could be said, “While I acknowledge the primacy of a relationship with Jesus in reflection about the cultures of the world, my attempt to grasp its significance always involves the cultures within which I find myself.” This brings me to my next reflection.

Second, the unfortunate reality in America is that most Christians in America probably have more in common with their non-Christian neighbor than they do with their Syrian brother and sister in Christ (this might also be said of similar dynamics within American Christianity along racial, education, or socioeconomic lines). This is something which American Christians need to confess and from which they should repent. If truly “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28), and we are not one, then either we are not in Christ or we are on the verge of falling out of Christ. I do not believe that Paul was intending to flatten cultural differences between Jew and Greek (or Arab and American in this case) but to impel Jew and Greek to find common root and connection in a new reality in Christ amidst real cultural differences. This might suggest that while our ultimate salvation is in Christ, the fruit of that salvation must be seen in our ever expanding worldview to include those who are in Christ and in another culture.

Third, there exists for the Western Christian in general and the American Christian in particular a danger in being an American first and a Christian second that does not exist for Christians of some other cultures. It is the danger of confusing power with Christianity. As we sailed upon the Sea of Galilee our Palestinian Christian guide, Peter, was frustrated to find that when the captain of the boat raised the American flag and played the American National Anthem, no one stood in respect or reverence of the flag. This began a long conversation between a couple of us and Peter about why we were ambivalent about what the American flag now stood for in this region of the world.

America and America’s power both economically, culturally, and militarily can be seen around every corner in the Middle East. It is particularly evident in Israel which is significantly more Western and wealthy than any other nation in the region that we visited. America stands for power and influence, and I was uncomfortable standing in reverence of these values in a region that did not always appreciate America’s power and influence (not to mention my own ambivalence about how that power and influence were being used in the region). Thus, to be an American first suggests that the American culture of power and influence comes before other Christian values, particularly values of service, strength in weakness, and simplicity among others. This is potentially to fall into idolatry of worshiping strength and influence rather than God whose “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

During this conversation I asked Peter whether he was a Palestinian Christian or a Christian Palestinian. After pondering the distinction for a while he responded, “I am a Christian citizen.” He went on to explain that what he meant by this was that he saw himself as a citizen of the world before any one particular nationality. I wonder whether he was not falling into the same trap that I had been falling into thinking that my Christianity could exist outside of the cultures within which I find myself.

Fourth, it is essential for Christians to build relationships with Christians of other cultures. Living in one particular culture means wearing blinders. These blinders can never fully be taken off (there is no supra-objective perspective that does not include some sort of perspective or bias), but one can become more aware that they exist and humble about one’s own perspective. By getting to know people who are not like me, I begin to become aware of the blind spots in my vision, particularly the ways that I have confused my own culture with following Jesus. Relationships with Christians of other cultures helps keep me from idolatry. In this respect then, Christians of other cultures are a locus of my own salvation (and possibly I am of theirs). This is not to suggest that it is because of them that I am saved, but rather that through them God’s grace works to disentangle my own notions of salvation from God’s notions of salvation. I am not using the word “salvation” here in its usual American evangelical sense of meaning only “justification” but rather in its fullest Wesleyan sense to include the entire work of God’s grace from the beginning dawn of it in the soul to its final consummation in sanctification and glorification. In this sense our salvation is dependent upon getting to know people and especially Christians who see things different that we do. (This statement is certain to be misunderstood by any who are not familiar with a Wesleyan conception of salvation as including both justification and sanctification. I do not mean that we “work” our own justification, but rather that there are works consistent with repentance [Acts 26:20] and those works are as much a part of our salvation/sanctification as justification is part of our salvation.) Christians from other cultures certainly provide such a means of grace, which leads me to my last reflection.

Fifth, Jesus was God incarnate, incarnated in this culture of the Middle East. If I have more in common with my non-Christian American neighbor than with my Christian brother or sister in the Middle East, could this mean that I too have more in common with my non-Christian American neighbor than I do with Jesus? Am I more comfortable with my fellow American than this Middle Eastern savior I meet in the scriptures? What does this say about the state of my soul? Once again the locus of my salvation seems to rest in a relationship with Christians of other cultures who help me to see who this man-savior named Jesus of Nazareth really is.

Am I an American Christian or a Christian American? Or should I aspire as Peter does to be a Christian citizen of the world? I do not have clear answers to these questions, but the Middle East Travel Seminar has helped me to come in contact with Christians who see this world in different ways than my own. I pray that through them God might remove the blinders from my own eyes so that I might see more fully the idols which I serve in my own culture so as to repent of them and be saved to worship the one true God who is the Father of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

Guest Book (take two)

If you're visiting this blog and haven't already signed the guest book that is now buried in the past posts, here's your chance to sign-in and tell me who you are and what your connection to METS is. Just click on the "comments" below and add a brief post with your name and relation to METS.
Thanks.

Transition Sermon

Dear Friends,
Here is the sermon I preached Sunday morning on Hydra. These are not the exact words, but are close enough. This sermon is roughly built on a sermon that I preached last summer when the church I was appointed to was going through the transition of having two pastors leave and receiving two new pastors. Thus, it will be quite familiar to those who heard that sermon. The context was different, but the issues of transition and change were similar. I pray that these words might be words of wisdom for us in this new time and place.
Peace and grace,
Tom

Transition
June 3, 2007 (Hydra, Greece)
Acts 1:1-11

Transition…

We’re all getting ready to go through a big transition. We have spent three weeks in these holy lands and soon we will be going home. There will be big changes for each of us as we make our way back into the regular routines of our lives back home. We will pick up that pile of papers left on our desk. We will go back to school. We will reunite with our friends, spouses, and families. We will begin our summer internships. Change and transition is right around the corner.

Why look at the first half of the first chapter of Acts this morning? What does it have to do with this transition we are about to go through? Well, it is in these first eleven verses that we find a major transition happening for Jesus’ disciples as he leaves them and ascends to heaven. What Jesus tells them to do, and what Luke says as he reflects on this story of change in the disciples lives, can provide us some wisdom as we make the transition back into our normal lives. Let’s take a look and see.

Acts 1:1 (NRSV)
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught form the beginning...

This book of Acts is the second volume in a two-book volume set written by Luke. If you pick up the book of Luke and read the end, you will notice that Luke has already told the story of the ascension, and yet here he is in Acts telling it again. And when you read both accounts by Luke, you will see that there are different details in each. What is Luke up to here? Did he have, as my elder friends say, a senior moment and forget that he had already told this story? Or do the differences between the two suggest that the ascension really didn’t happen? Or is Luke up to something else here?

I’d like to suggest this morning that Luke sees a moment of grace here in the transition that the disciples are about to experience and that this experience is worth reflecting on more than once. To the best of my knowledge this is the only example in the New Testament of the same author telling the same story twice. In my own experience, it is in moments of transition that we are particularly open to God’s grace at work in us. There is an open door in our lives when we experience change that God can use to transform us and mold us more into who God is calling us to become. It is for this reason, I suggest, that Luke reflects on this transition twice. Because it is an essential time for God’s grace to work.

When you go home and begin to tell this story and reflect upon it, do it more than once. In fact, you already have begun to reflect upon it. You have been journaling, talking to one another, praying and worshiping together, and some of us have even been blogging. But when you go home, don’t let these first reflections be the last. And as you tell this story, new things will come to the foreground. Other things will fall to the background just as it happens for Luke telling the story of the ascension twice. Some of the details will change as God reveals God’s grace in your lives. For this reason, reflect on this experience of the Holy Lands over and over again.

But what should be the first step when you go home? What is the first thing you should do? When you left your home and your jobs for three or more weeks, what did you tell the people you were leaving to do? You probably didn’t tell them just to wait. “Just sit at your desk until I come back to the office….Just wait in the living room until I come home.” If you are anything like me, you had quite a detailed plan for what everyone should be doing while you were gone. Maybe you had to take care of all your finances ahead of time. Maybe you had to draw up a calendar for when certain things should be done. Maybe you had to do three weeks worth of work ahead of time be able to be gone! But you certainly did not tell the people you were leaving, “Just wait till I get back.” And yet, the first thing that Luke tells us that Jesus told his disciples was to wait.

Acts 1:4 (NRSV)
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.

Jesus tells his disciples to wait. I hate waiting. I hate waiting for my pictures to upload on these slow internet connects. I hate waiting for the bus to get to the next stop so I can use the bathroom. I hate waiting to eat some regular food and get rid of this Crusader Crud I’ve got. I hate waiting for lunch to come at 3PM! I simply hate waiting. Come on Jesus, can’t you tell us to do something besides wait? Can’t we start an action plan? A strategic plan? Join a protest group or tell everyone we see about what we experienced in these holy lands? Anything but waiting. But Jesus tells his disciples to wait.

Why wait? We find the answer to this in the disciples’ response to Jesus in verse six.

Acts 1:6 (NRSV)
When they had come together they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples still didn’t get it. Jesus’ wasn’t about a political kingdom. And we usually don’t get it either. When we try to act quickly, we usually don’t get it right. We emphasize the wrong things. Or we follow our own plans and not God’s. That is why Jesus tells them to wait. But wait for what? Jesus tells them at the end of verse four: the promise of the Father. And what is the promise of the Father?

Acts 1:5 (NRSV)
John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Jesus tells them to wait for the Spirit. The reason we don’t get it when we rush into action is because we’re trying to do it without God. If God’s Spirit is not in our work, it won’t produce much fruit. Sure we might accomplish something. But it won’t be what God has planned. And so we are to wait for the Spirit to act in us so that we join God in God’s work and not just rush off to our own work.

And what is it that the Spirit gives us? We find this in verse eight.

Acts 1:8a (NRSV)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

Power. That’s what we’re looking for. We each have some amount of power. But it pales compared to God’s power in the Spirit. Yet “power” is a rather vague kind of thing. Power for what and to do what? Luke goes on to tell us what this power enables us to do:

Acts 1:8b (NRSV)
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Power to witness to God’s grace at work in these lands. In Jerusalem and Jericho, Sinai and Amman and Damascus. In Atlanta and D.C., Michigan and Tennessee and Texas. To the ends of the world we are to be witnesses to how God’s grace is at work in us and in these holy lands. And a time will then come when the waiting stops and the action begins.

Acts 1:11 (NRSV)
[The angels] said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

You can almost hear the frustration in the angels’ voices. “Why are you standing around with your hands in your pockets? Get going to Jerusalem and start waiting for what Jesus told you to wait for.” There is a time for action. But first comes reflecting and waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to God’s grace.

And because we worship and follow not a dead god but a risen Lord and Savior, there will come a day when Jesus will come back and hold us accountable to the gift we have been given in these three weeks of experience in the holy lands. These three weeks are a talent that has been given to us. Will you bury it or will you invest it and reap the return? Because we know that Jesus will come back, we are impelled now to take this gift and invest it wisely. One day we will have to give an account of what we did with it.

So go and wait…
Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit and be witnesses to God’s grace at work in your own life and these holy lands.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Day 20 (Athens) & 21 (Travel Home)

Having arrived back home, I thought I would go back and post about the last two days.

On our second to last day (during this trip I was completely lost as to what day of the week it was), we got up at the ungodly hour of 2:00 AM to prepare for the arduous task of making it through the Tel Aviv airport security. It took us 2.5 hours to run the gauntlet. But finally we were through and on our way to Athens. Once in Athens we got on a hydrofoil and sailed to Hydra, a beautiful island with no cars (only horses and donkeys). After the crazy travel time, it was wonderful to finally get to Hydra. We spent the rest of the day swimming, diving off rocks, and wandering around the small town exploring and shopping. We had a wonderful sunset dinner overlooking the Mediterranean.

The next morning we slept in until 7AM and joined together for worship. I preached the sermon for the morning on Acts 1:1-11 and reflected on what we could learn in our own transition from the disciples' transition as Jesus ascended. I will post a manuscript of this sermon on the blog in the coming days.

After worship we got back on the boat and went back to Athens where we checked into our hotel and then had one last romp through the Acropolis. Our guide said that we acted like people who had seen and done all this before. She pegged us well.

It is good to be back home now. I enjoyed sleeping in my own bed and eating my own food. I'm wrestling with the time change (7 hours worth), but that will be over in a day or two. I have a reflection paper to write about this trip. I suspect I will write it on the question of the relationship between one's nationality and one's Christianity. It was a question that dogged me the entire time in the Middle East. I will eventually post it on this blog for others to read. I may as well post a couple more thoughts in days to come. So check back in coming days.

Thanks to all who have read this blog. I had no idea going into it that it would have such a wide audience. It helped motivate me to write knowing that so many were reading.

Peace and grace,
Tom

Paris Airport

We're all sitting in the Paris Airport waiting out a four hour lay-over. But we're on our way home. I'm looking forward to my own bed, a regular schedule (that doesn't include getting up at 1:30 AM a couple of times a week), and eating food that doesn't give me the crusader crud.

The past two days have been spent in Greece. The highlight was a day on Hydra Island for some R&R. The island has no cars so it was very peaceful and quiet.

I'll post more when I get home.

Day 19 - Jersualem (Take Two)

Today was a day of museums. We began with the Holocaust museum. We had about an hour to blow through this museum. I spent my time in the Memorial Hall (an eternal flame burning in a dark room with the name of the concentration camps in the floor), the Art Gallery, the Children's Memorial (a moving memorial to all the children killed in the Holocaust), and the gardens. We were each on our own so different people did different things. It was a very peaceful place to spend an hour, even though the surrounding memorials were in stark contrast to the peaceful surroundings.

Next on the agenda was the Jerusalem Museum with the main attraction being the display of the Dead Sea Scrolls. After having seen these in Grand Rapids, and probably seeing more than were displayed here, it was not quite as interesting to me as it might have been, but it was still a good visit. The more interesting exhibit we visited at this museum was a scale model of Jerusalem during Jesus' time. It was about 100 x 100 feet and helped orient us to the city and all the places we had seen. The temple mount and Herod's Temple particularly stood out amidst all the other buildings. It must have been quite impressive in its day.

After these museums we went to Bethlehem for lunch. We passed through the daunting wall again. We had shwarmas (sp?) or falafel. A shwarma is carved meet in a pita with various toppings. It reminded me of a Middle Eastern Subway. On the way out of Bethlehem, they asked for everyone to pull out their passports. I did not bring mine, and thankfully it was just a bluff. I was prepared to be left stranded in Bethlehem.

As we drove to our next destination we stopped at the Women in Black protest. Every Friday at the same time women dress in black and protest the "occupation" of the West Bank by Israel. I put "occupation" in quotes because this term is hotly contested. We had the opportunity to get out and talk with the women. Many in the group joined the protest. Not being the protest-type myself, I abstained, particularly having not heard both sides of the issue on this trip. Though from what I have heard, the Palestinian perspective is a compelling one.

Our last stop of the day was the Mount of Olives. We began at the top overlooking Jerusalem. It was a birds eye vantage point. We walked down to the Church of Tears where Jesus wept over Jerusalem and then descended further to the garden of Gethsemane and the church near the garden. The garden and the ancient olive trees in it were beautiful. The church housed the rock that is the traditional site of Jesus' weeping in the garden. It was a very dark church with alabaster windows that did not let in much light. It was a calming quiet place to end our visit of Jerusalem. It was also appropriate to end in the garden where Jesus struggled with his own decision to follow his Father's will for this city and the world. I suspect each of us is wrestling with what God might be calling us to now that we have made this visit to these lands.

Tomorrow we get up at 1:30 AM to fly to Athens at 7:00AM. We then take a hydrofoil to Hydra and have a day of R&R. Lastly, we have one day in Athens before making the long flight home. I do not know whether I will have time to make any posts past today. But the bulk of our trip concludes today. If I don't get one up in Athens, I will post something about the last days when I get home.